Sunday, February 28, 2010

I suppose you can tell a lot about people from what they keep inside their refrigerator. The person whose refrigerator is stocked with only fruits and vegetables may have a different outlook than the one whose refrigerator is stocked mostly with puddings and pies. Those who have mostly milk and juice may live differently than those who have only cold beer and a bottle of ketchup. Though what we keep inside the refrigerator may be telling, I think what we have on the outside may tell us even more.

There is nothing on the front of my refrigerator, but I do have a few things on one side. After the cleaning people were here last week they were all rearranged which brought them to my attention. They all represent a memory to me.

This was a gift from a friend a long time ago

Reminders of places I have visited

This was given to my daughter a long time ago after she broke her nose in a car wreck because she was not wearing a seat belt.

My grandaughter, Hope, made this for me when she was 4 years old

My oldest daughter, Jill, gave this to me when she was a teenager, probably looking for a favorable answer to something she wanted to do.

I also have two old cartoons. One is a guy filling a Starbucks van with gas, asking the guy beside him "Did you ever think we would pay this price for a gallon of gas?" The other is a little boy playing ball with his grandmother asking her "Did you have any fun things to do before I was born, Grandma?"

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I have been given the Circle of Friends Award by Donna B at Mystical Journeys. Please go visit her. Any blog award is an honor to receive, but I especially appreciate this one, because what is blogging but a circle of friends. We share various aspects of our life with one another, both the mundane and the extraordinary. We make one another laugh, we share our challenges and our sorrows, we comment on each others thoughts and offer advice and criticism. We share pictures of children, grandchildren and pets. We admire one another's artistic endeavors and craft projects. In doing these things we become friends.

A lot has been written about friendship, but some have said things that I think that are especially fitting for friendships made through blogging.

A friend is someone who listens attentively when you say nothing.

Author unknown

You can't stay in your corner of the woods waiting for friends to come to you. You have to

go to them sometimes.

Winnie the Pooh

Good friends are like angels-you don't have to see them to

know they are there.

Author unknown

Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense and have

our nonsense respected.

Charles Lamb

Every good friend was once a stranger.

Author unknown

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another

"What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

C.S. Lewis

I am to pass the award along to five bloggers. That is the hard part since there are many I would like to pass it to. When I think of a blog friend the first person that always comes to my mind is Betty at A Glimpse Into Midlife. She is the best there is in a friend, blog or otherwise. So I will pass the award to her today and to four others in the near future.

Thank you to Donna B and to all the other bloggers who have been a friend to me.

Friday, February 19, 2010

I'm taking a risk here. My most recent post was a joke, and now I'm posting about the weather. Is there an award for the lamest blogger ever? Oh well, back to the weather. I may not have been reading as many blogs this time last year as I do now, but I don't remember that there was near as much talk (complaining) in blogland about the weather a year ago as there is now. This seems to be a winter that has everyone wishing for an acceleration of global warming.

Early on, say back in November or so, there were a lot of wonderful snow pictures posted and praise for the beauty of the first snow of the season. In December many of us were full of the wonder and joy of a white Christmas. Even in early January there were still lots of pictures showing up of cute snowmen and kids and dogs romping in the snow.

As this winter has worn on it seems to have worn us out. There has been snow in places that haven't seen snow for many years. Temperatures in some states have dipped to rarely seen lows and sent people running to dig coats and scarves out of storage boxes. Places that are used to cold and snow seem to be having more cold and more snow than even they are used to. Snow shovels have broken and their users are worn down. Beautiful snow pictures have given way to grumblings about Winter and wishes for Spring.

Even as I sit her watching it snow yet again, I am well aware that in some parts of the world it is summer and it is hot, too hot. I wish nothing less than a cool and refreshing rain for those with too much heat. For those of us in the winter weary Northern Hemisphere, I am joining those who are saying enough is enough.

I won't be taking any pictures of the snow that is coming down here today or of the snow that is predicted for tomorrow. There will be visions of blooming flowers and budding trees dancing in my head. I am a summer person. I love little girls in summer dresses and little boys with bare feet. As I bundle up and shovel the driveway once again, (okay, Doc does most of the shoveling) I will be looking forward to the pictures you will soon be posting of the flowers in your garden and of your kids and grandkids eating a melting ice cream cone.

I will revel in your pictures of Spring.....until Summer comes and we all start complaining about the heat.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A man wakes up in the hospital, covered in bandages.The doctor comes in and says, "Ah, I see you've regained consciousness. Now, you probably won't remember, but you were in a bad accident. You're going to be okay, you'll walk again and everything, but..."Something happened. I'm trying to break this gently, but the fact is, your willy was chopped off in the wreck and we were unable to find it."

The man groans, but the doctor goes on, "You've got $9000 in insurance compensation coming and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did - better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn't come cheap. It's $1000 an inch."

The man perks up at this.

"So," the doctor says, "It's for you to decide how many inches you want. But it's something you'd better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before, and you decide to go for a nine incher, she might be a bit put out. But if you had a nine inch one before, and you decide only to invest in five inches this time, she might be disappointed. So it's important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision."

The man agrees to talk with his wife.

The doctor comes back the next day. "So," says the doctor, "have you spoken with your wife?"

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Is your signature neat and readable as your name or is it a less than legible marking that only you would recognize as your name? Those who study such things say that a person's signature is a key to understanding how that person wants to be seen by others or that it is a sign of how your see yourself in relation to others. For instance, a simple, readable signature means that the writer is down to earth, modest and unassuming. A large flamboyant signature may mean that the writer wants to be seen as more important than he/she is, or that he/she is trying to hide an inferiority complex. An illegible signature that could in no way be deciphered as the name it represents could mean many things including that the person tries to appear smart but won't listen to what others have to say or simply that the person is trying to impress others.

I have no expertise on the subject and don't necessarily agree with the above interpretations. I just don't know, but what made me wonder about it is that when I had a blog makeover done a couple of months ago the makeover included a signature at the end of each post......and there is now a signature at the end of each of my posts. It is a perfectly fine signature. It just isn't my signature and that has kind of bothered me. It's not that my signature is any better, but it's mine, and the one at the bottom of my posts isn't. Mine would be a little smaller, a little less round and it would slant a little more to the right. I know, I could just remove the signature, but because of all the HTML issues I had before the makeover I'm a little afraid to mess with anything, so I think it will stay there for now. So if you are going to form an opinion based on the signature at the end of my posts, please make the above mentioned adjustments in your mind first.

Do you have a unique signature? Do you form an opinion about a person from the way they sign their name?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

I'd like to invite everyone to join me today in saying a big thank you to Cate at Showmyface . Cate does a great job of hosting Six Word Saturday every week. There were over 70 participants last week and there have been more other weeks. I have gotten a comment from Cate every time I have participated in 6WS and I know most every participant gets a comment from Cate. I have gotten acquainted with some great blogs through 6WS and I'm sure many of you have to. Let's all show our appreciation to Cate today with a big "Thank You".

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My 6 year old grandson, Justin, recited the following poem at the Oral Interpretation Program at his school tonight.

No Difference / Shel Silverstein

Small as a peanut

Big as a giant,

We're all the same size

When we turn off the light.

Red black or orange,

Yellow or white

We all look the same

When we turn off the light.

So maybe the way

To make everything right

Is for God to just reach out

And turn off the light!

Justin

He did a great job and he had a lot of fun playing with the flashlight he used as a prop. There were over 100 kids that participated in the program, including two of my other grandchildren, Jared and Hope, all of them reciting something they had memorized. (Most were fairly short, and some were in groups, so it didn't last as long as it might sound like .)They all worked hard and did a really good job. I hope some of them remember Justin's poem.

1. Are you pleasant when you're ill, or are you a grumpy, fussy patient?
I am very fortunate that I don't get sick very often and I haven't been really sick for a long time, but if I'm not feeling well I mostly just want to be left alone.

2. When you find out that school is canceled (due to inclement weather) what is your gut reaction?
Since my kids are all grown with kids of their own, I mostly just wish that my work was cancelled too so I could go play with my grandkids.

3. What is one domestic skill you wish you could improve?
I am not very domestic at all these days. I used to be, but my domesticity kind of left when my kids grew up. I wish I had more desire to cook. I am a good cook when I do it, but I don't cook very often.

4. Do you decorate your home for Valentine's Day?
No, and those of you that know me know the reason why.

5. What song is on your mind today?
"Take This Job and Shove It". That sounds pretty harsh, huh? I don't hate my job at all, but I get tired of being tied down to it.

6. Do you prefer contemporary movies or classic?
I always intend to watch or go to movies but don't do either one very often. I guess I prefer contemporary because I prefer to go out if I am going to see a movie. I alway find other (undomestic) things to do if I try to watch a movie at home. I don't sit down and sit still very well.

7. How well do you "compartmentalize" your feelings? For example, how well can you put aside a really trying moment to deal with the immediate situation which is not related to the trying moment, e.g., putting aside a tiff with your spouse in order to finish wallpapering a room.
Not well at all. If I have any kind of conflict going on, that conflict needs to be resolved before I can focus well on anything else.

8. What is the first thing that attracted you to your spouse? (Or if you're single, to your best friend.)
We both found a lot of humor in the situation in which we met.

9. When was the last time your heart raced?
When we thought our dog was lost.

10. What are your memories of Valentine's Day at school?
I bet a lot of people answer this in a similar way.......I remember wondering who I would or would not get a Valentine from.

11. If you were going to receive candy for Valentine's Day, which would you prefer?
Dark chocolate truffles.

12. Red or pink?
Red, unless it has to do with my granddaughters, then it is pink all the way.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Bark, bark, bark. "What is it Lassie? Timmy's in trouble? He fell down the well? Let's go, Boy." Lassie saving Timmy from the well is the iconic example of an intelligent and skilled animal saving a person from danger.

I have written a couple of times about Doc being somewhat over the top, let's say twitterpated, about Dodger, the dog we apopted from the pound a few months ago. Well, it seems that, according to Doc, Dodger had his own "Lassie" moment the other night.

Last Friday night I wasn't feeling very well and I went back to the bedroom to lie down for a while, something I rarely do. At one point Dodger came in and put his nose on the bed for a minute, kind of nudged my hand and then left. A while later he came back into the bedroom followed by Doc, and when I sat up and talked to them Dodger jumped and barked and did a doggy happy dance.

Doc said Dodger had come in and sat down by him making a funny whining sound he had never heard him make before and kept putting his paw up on Doc's leg. Dodger got up and paced for a minute and then sat down by Doc again with the same whining and pawing. The only times Doc has seen similar behavior from Dodger was when he has done something he knows he shouldn't do......then he comes and sits by one of us and just sort of hangs his head. Thinking from the way Dodger was acting that he had chewed the arm off of a chair or something, Doc got up to investigate. Doc said Dodger led him back to the bedroom "Lassie style" where they found me asleep. They woke me up and the doggy happy dance ensued.

Doc is positive that Dodger thought there was something wrong with me and that he made sure Doc came to "rescue" me. I haven't argued the point with him.....there would no changing his mind, and maybe he is right.

Our hero, Dodger

I also haven't told Doc that Timmy never actually fell into a well on the show. He got stuck in a pipe, and fell in a river, but it was Lassie who fell into a well.

Friday, February 5, 2010

A funny post by my friend Betty at A Glimpse Into Midlife got me thinking about our self image in regard to our age. Do any of us think we look the age we are? I'm pretty open about how old I am (62), but I like to think I look pretty good for my age. Oh sure, I have an 11 on my forehead between my eyebrows and I'm developing parentheses around my mouth, but surely those are just laugh lines. I'm a happy person.

There's nothing that shatters a good self image about how we look for our age like being offered the dreaded Senior Discount. There's nothing that will kill the buzz of finding a cute new sweater or a fun new pair of shoes like having the person at the check-out say "Hey, old lady, wanna save some money?" I, of course, take the discount and limp home, go on feeling good about myself.

So far, in truth, my age doesn't bother me (much). I feel good, I look okay and I know what I have lived through to get here. It's all in the attitude.

How do you feel about how you look for your age? Is there something that can shatter your self image about how you look?

About Me

I am a mother and a grandmother, I live with Kenny (most people call him Doc),have 3 grown children (1 son and 2 daughters), 1 daughter-in law and 2 son's-in-law and 7 grandchildren-3 girls and 4 boys, all of them the best ever!